It's the world's fourth-largest country in population, and the largest one for Muslims. Yet Indonesia's presence in the world of Super-Hair was non-existant, until model and actress Sandra Dewi (who's Catholic, for the record) came along. She narrowly missed the 2017 AAA Cup playoffs, but advanced to Super-Hair World Cup V through Interzonal qualifying. In 2018, Dewi outlasted a very competitive field to make Indonesia our World Cup champion!

Dewi appeared to be in trouble when she lost Match 3 in the Blue Group to Honduras. She needed a large win in Match 6 to advance to the knockout round. But a loyal bloc of voters came to her aid - first by denying Egypt a win in Match 4, then pushing Indonesia to victory in the final week. After a close semifinal fight with the Philippines, Dewi had a deficit early in the final round. But the voting surge came again on the final Friday, and she defeated Patricija Belousova of Lithuania with 64 percent of the votes.

This World Cup had an Asian influence like never before. It was made clear in the Consolation Final, where Kylie Verzosa of the Philippines edged Jun Ji-hyun (aka Gianna Jun) of South Korea. In fact, three of the four World Cup playoff countries were Cup first-timers!

The 16-country field for this tournament was determined through international events from 2015-17. Only one woman represented each country in group play - and after two qualifying weeks to settle several national entries and six weeks of group play, four group winners advanced to the knockout rounds:

BLUE GROUP

INDONESIA: SANDRA DEWI. This group had fascinating voting surges from Match 4 on, ending with a TV and movie actress prevailing by a narrow margin.

LITHUANIA: PATRICIJA BELOUSOVA. A professional ballroom dancer-turned-university student won EuroCup 2016, and clinched this group in only four weeks. But her country winds up a two-time World Cup bridesmaid.

SOUTH KOREA: JUN JI-HYUN. A rush of votes in the final hours gave the actress known to some as Gianna Jun a stunning Match 6 win, dethroning the three-time defending champion United States. But perhaps it was all to help Dewi, as she fell short in the knockout rounds.